Here’s my big question with cars like this: has the allure of owning a genuine Japanese-market vehicle begun to subside? It seems like more and more casual flippers are getting into the business of bringing over some slightly-warmed over JDM vehicle that isn’t dramatically different from its U.S. counterpart. This 1997 Toyota Aristo sedan is a home-market version of the Lexus GS300/400 we received stateside, and more specifically, it’d be considered a 300 model owing to its six-cylinder engine. Still, if you want to confuse the drive-through personnel at your local Mcdonald’s, this is one way to do it. Find the RHD Toyota here on craigslist for $14,500.

For a spell, the only JDM vehicles coming over on a container ship were the most desirable of the forbidden fruit models. The Skyline GTRs, the Toyota Supras, the Mazda RX7s – these made sense. They were expensive to buy and sold here for a higher price tag, often without too much resistance from buyers. But now, as either the well begins to run dry or more small businesses try to get into the marketplace, we’re seeing a wave of decidedly average cars from Japan showing up all over craigslist and not really offering much over the same car sold locally with a different badge and the steering on the left. This Aristo looks to be in fair condition, but a time warp car it is not.

And of course, like any other gray market Mercedes-Benz, you lose a lot of the opulence that American car and truck shoppers tend to demand from manufacturers. The interior features cloth seats and standard trim; no deep maple wood inserts here. The good news about JDM models is they usually show up in fairly clean condition inside, owing to their limited use while in Japan. Given this is a near-carbon copy of the model that Lexus sold, I have a feeling this particular car was a cheap add-on to an order the seller had already placed. I’m sure if you’re a regular with the local used car auction, your sales contact in Japan would happily shove another car into the container that otherwise wouldn’t fetch a big price.

I’m not sure what a Vertex edition stands for, but I feel pretty confident it’s simply a cosmetic upgrade of some kind. The seller doesn’t provide much context for the car or why they bought it, and with 126,000 miles, it wasn’t picked up for being a showroom-fresh specimen with under 10,000 miles. And given you can still pick up a GS400 of this era with a rowdy V8 under the hood, this example doesn’t make much sense to me. Importing a JDM model that offers incredible performance or otherwise has no domestic peers? That’s a good move, especially if you can find out for a fair price with shipping included. Thanks to Barn Finds reader Mark K. for the find.